The current Chinese year is the “Year of the Dragon,” which ends Feb. 9, 2013.

I’m proposing Town Hall host a huge New Year’s Eve bash Feb. 9 to ring in the new year.

The new symbol?

I hereby declare the rest of 2013 as the “Year of the Streets” for Fountain Hills.

Since we can’t legally blow off personal fireworks in town (though we can buy them here!), at the bash the town could hand out chunks of asphalt, seal coating material and other pavement-related stuff as personal mementos of 2013 and the “Year of the Streets.”

We could close off downtown streets and celebrate all things asphalt and/or cement.

One of the lessons we realized during this Great Recession is how America has, for the most part, ignored its basic infrastructure – bridges, highways, tunnels, subways, sewers and the like.

Since the Town of Fountain Hills relies primarily on two major sources of revenue – sales taxes and stateshared revenues -- as those sources dried up the last several years something as expensive as street maintenance took a hit.

Thus the Town Council has been tackling such thorny issues as how to improve the median strip on Avenue of the Fountains, totally redoing Saguaro Blvd., upgrading and maintaining the other streets throughout town and what about that pesky intersection at Saguaro and Avenue of the Fountains?

Like I said, it’s the Year of the Streets…

I know some have advocated delaying such things as the Avenue median improvement (and waiting for the Saguaro Blvd. bond election), but I can also understand the Town Council’s desire to move ahead with updating a strip that has longed for a new look for quite some time.

We can’t really wait for some magical development to come along on the Avenue’s south side to take care of issues that belong to us. That commercial/residential development may or may not ever materialize.

Even though it’s controversial, I also can understand the council’s desire to move ahead with doing something at the Avenue/Saguaro intersection.

Assuming voters approve a November bond issue to rip up and redo Saguaro Blvd. – and the town pulls the trigger on Avenue median improvements – it makes logistical sense to go ahead and do something else with the intersection.

It’s been a problem child for many years, since it is so wide and not the easiest to traverse between the Avenue and Fountain Park.

I don’t think a tunnel or a bridge would make economic sense, and the current stop sign scenario just seems to be a Band-Aid approach.

I personally don’t have issues with roundabouts like some people do, but that’s why the council members chose to run for office – to make these critical decisions on behalf of their constituents and the future of our town.

It would be nice to have a “new” Saguaro Blvd., an upgraded median and a “new” intersection for the Avenue.

Happy Streets Year!